'Great intellectual' Colin Dexter has been remembered by those who knew him as not only a talented author but a kind and generous man.

Friends, fellow crossword setters and the stars of the TV series inspired by his Inspector Morse novels all paid tribute to the North Oxford writer after his death yesterday.

Mr Dexter said he would never allow anyone other than the late John Thaw to portray the detective, and yesterday Mr Thaw’s daughter paid tribute to the writer.

Abigail Thaw, who appears in prequel Endeavour as Oxford Mail editor Dorothea Frazil, tweeted: “So sad. 

“Strangely thought it could never happen.

“We owe him so much. 

“A very dear and brilliant man.”

The Morse novels featured DS Robbie Lewis, who went on to be made famous on screen by Kevin Whately.

He was partnered in the Morse sequel Lewis by DS James Hathaway, played by Laurence Fox.

Yesterday Mr Fox tweeted: “Farewell wonderful Colin.

“Thank you for your rich characters, your mischief and for being the best dinner companion anyone could wish for.”

Dr Antony Richards, chairman of the Inspector Morse Society, said he was saddened to hear of his friend’s death.

Oxford Mail:

Dr Antony Richards with Colin Dexter.

He said: “I have known Colin for about 30 years and the society, which has been going for about 20 years, has about 400 members from across the country.

“We have a big meeting once a year and Colin usually comes along, although he couldn’t make it last year because he was too ill to travel to Cambridge.

“About 25 years ago I had to introduce Colin at a Sherlock Holmes society dinner and I intended to say that he was an intellectual teddy bear but I ended up saying he had the intellect of a teddy bear.

“Of course Colin was a great intellectual with a great sense of humour and the personality to go with it – we will all miss him a great deal and our thoughts are with his wife Dorothy and his family.”

Mr Dexter was equally revered by another community – crossword setters.

The author loved to tackle the most fiendish cryptic crosswords and wrote a book to teach others to solve them.

He even used the names of friends and fellow solvers he competed with in his Inspector Morse novels, such as the late banker and chess expert Sir Jeremy Morse, the real-life inspiration for Morse, and Mrs B Lewis, the namesake of Morse’s bagman. Both were regular entrants to The Observer’s weekly Ximenes crossword. 

Don Manley, a close friend and another rival crossword solver, met Mr Dexter in 1985 and often joined him for sessions at his favourite watering holes where they ‘compared clues, talked theology, a little about Morse and put the world to rights’. 

The 71-year-old, crossword editor of Church Times, said: “ We were great pals and had been great rivals with Jeremy.

"He was brilliant at crossword clues and I learned a lot from him. Of course, going to the pub with someone famous means they tend to get besieged by fans. But

Colin was always very convivial and spent time speaking to them. It’s the end of an era.”

Jonathan Crowther, a friend who writes crosswords for The Observer under the pseudonym Azed, said: “Colin was a very keen competitor and also wrote extremely elegant clues. He was always wonderful company and a brilliant raconteur.”

Oxfordshire Association for the Blind has paid tribute to the author for championing its work to help people with sight problems.

Mr Dexter was diagnosed with macular degeneration – the leading cause of blindness in Britain – in 2005 and had received support from the charity himself.

Oxford Mail:

Colin Dexter at Oxfordshire Association for the Blind

The crime writer said his sight problems forced him to give up crosswords – a favourite pastime – in 2010, but praised the association for the help it had given him. 

He was also the ‘champion’ of its campaign to raise £500,000 for a new building in Gordon Woodward Way, South Oxford, in 2012.

The association’s director, Colin Cure, yesterday described Mr Dexter as a ‘great friend’ of the charity.

He added: “We were very sorry to hear about his death and are extremely grateful for all he did for us.

“He was the champion of the fundraising campaign for our new building, which was hugely successful, and he also took part in our work to raise awareness about impairment. 

“Colin very kindly did a series of interviews, talking about what it is like to manage vision impairment.